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Inside China's 'Christmas Factory' Town, Yiwu
jones_supa writes China's manufacturing industry continues booming, which has led to the the town of Yiwu (a city of about 1.2m people in central Zhejiang province) being christened "China's Christmas village." The town has become the home of 600 factories that collectively churn out over 60% of all the world's Christmas decorations and accessories. The "elves" that staff these factories are mainly migrant labourers, working 12 hours a day for a maximum of £200 to £300 a month – and it turns out that all of them are not even entirely sure what Christmas is. Nevertheless, there are corridors lined with nothing but tinsel, streets throbbing with competing LED light shows, stockings of every size, plastic Christmas trees in blue and yellow and fluorescent pink, plastic pine cones in gold and silver. The complex of Yiwu International Trade Market was declared by the United Nations to be the "largest small commodity wholesale market in the world" and the scale of the operation necessitates a kind of urban plan, with this festival of commerce organised into five different districts, of which District Two is solely dedicated for Christmas stuff.
The Republicans insinuated that the Democrat candidate (Dukakis) wasn't patriotic or "tough enough" on military affairs, so both campaigns organized ridiculous photo-ops with patriotic and/or military themes. Dukakis was filmed riding around in a tank. George HW Bush was shown touring an American flag factory.
Since "holiday political correctness" is a staple for criticism on conservative talk radio, maybe one of the 2016 GOP candidates will fly over to Christmastown for a TV ad.